Any given consumer may have access to a broad range of multimedia content, whether through broadcast television, subscription television, or the Internet. For a number of reasons it may be desirable to tailor content delivery for individual users. It would simplify the user experience, for example, if the range of possibilities were narrowed to channels and content that are consistent with the user's preferences. Such tailoring could also conserve bandwidth, memory, and other transmission and computing resources. Moreover, some content may not be appropriate for all users. Some content may be restricted to adults, for example, and should not be made available to children. Tailoring of content for children should reflect such considerations. In addition, media providers may wish to include advertising in the delivery of content. In this situation, advertising resources would be used more efficiently if the advertising were targeted to specific groups of users. For reasons such as these, tailoring content to specific users or to specific sets of users may be desirable.
In order to enjoy the benefits of such tailoring, the user typically needs to identify himself to the content provider when accessing content. This may take the form of logging in at the user's television or set-top box. A profile of the user can then be accessed, allowing for decisions to be made regarding the content to be provided to the user. Such an identification process may be cumbersome to the user. A typical user does not generally want to have to log in every time he sits down in front of the television or computer, for example. Such a process represents a burdensome extra step that must be performed before the user can access content.
In the drawings, the leftmost digit(s) of a reference number identifies the drawing in which the reference number first appears.